Can't Take My Eyes Off You
by ericaoutloud
Summary: AU. When Clare and Eli get paired together for class, will deeper connections be made? Is there more to them than meets the eye? Eclare. M for Language and Sexual Content. I suck at summaries. Give it a read though!
1. Prologue

Clare pulled her bag up on her shoulder. It was her second week of college and she was still getting used to the journey across campus from her math class to her creative writing class. The campus was huge and everything she had ever dreamed of. Being accepted to her dream college (NYU) still felt unreal. With enough scholarships, financial aid, and money saved up, Clare was able to make her dream a reality. Although she was sad to be away from her best friend Ali, who was currently at MIT, they were both making their dreams come true. They still managed to stay in touch and talk on the phone at least once a week. They were determined to keep their friendship going.

As she turned a corner, she bumped into someone, sending her flying to the ground. Gathering her books, she saw a hand extended out to her. As her eyes moved from the hand, up the arm, and to the jade green eyes staring back at her blue one, she blushed. This guy was tall, slim, and had the most gorgeous eyes she'd ever seen. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a black button up shirt. Taking his hand, she stood, gathering the last of her things.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to crash into you like that. I should use my eyes." She smiled apologetically. He smirked at her as he handed her a book she had dropped. "You have pretty eyes." They made eye contact at that moment, and Clare began to blush some more. "Thanks." She managed to squeak out. He gave her a small smile and continued on his way, pulling the one strap of his back pack up higher on his shoulder.

Clare let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Shaking her honey brown curls, she continued on to her English class. To Clare's relief, her roommate Jade was also in her creative writing class. Jade had black hair, brown eyes, and a shiny lip ring on the right side of her lip. When Clare found out she was going to be roommates, she tried not to judge off first impressions. Once she actually met Jade and got to know her, she was one of the sweetest people she had ever met. Except when you woke her up in the morning. The girls became fast friends and Clare was thankful her roommate situation turned out for the best. She had read horror stories upon coming to NYU.

As she took a seat next to Jade, she looked around the room. There seemed to be more people in the classroom today and Clare had no idea why. Looking around some more, Clare saw the guy from earlier walk in her class. He looked confused but took a seat near the back. Turning away from him, a light blush came back onto her cheeks. Jade took note of this and turned around, catching where Clare had just been looking. She turned back to her with a smirk.

"So who's Mr. Hottie over there?" she asked teasingly. Clare shook her head, blush growing slightly deeper. "What? Who? No one. Just some guy I literally bumped into outside." Jade looked back at him again and then smiled at Clare.

"He's super cute. Did you give him your digits?" Jade questioned. At Clare's wide eyes, Jade began to laugh. "My number? No way! He literally just told me I have pretty eyes then walked away." Jade smiled widely at her. "That means you definitely have a chance!" Clare stared at her with bug eyes before 2 professors walked in, coffee in hands, looking flustered. They spoke to each other for a moment, before the male professor cleared his throat.

"Can I have everyone quiet down please? Settle down." He yelled as the room slowly fell silent. He picked up some papers and stepped in front of the large desk at the front of the room. Clare looked around to realize the room was quite full now. "My name is Professor Phillips. I am the head of the photography and video departments. This is Professor Melody, head of the writing and theater departments. Due to budget cuts and understaffing, we have had to combine the creative writing and photography classes." As he finished his statement, the room erupted in voices. Some were angry, confused, or excited. Clare couldn't believe what she was hearing. She knew nothing about photography. How was she going to pass this class?

"Now since this was a very last minute decision, our course curriculum has to be changed as well. One student from each class will be paired together. The photography class will be taking photos all year and the creative writing class will be writing short stories to go along with them. Each grade will be a team effort. At the end of the school year, you should have a pretty good portfolio." Clare sighed in relief. She didn't have to take any of the pictures. She was, however, going to be paired with a complete stranger. Maybe she would get lucky and have a friendly classmate to help her throughout the year. She shook her head, turning her attention to her professor. "Now let us pair you guys together so you can get to know each other. Please raise your hand when your name is called so you can find your partner." Professor Melody added.

One by one, people started to get paired off. Clare had never seen most of these people before. She was assuming they were all freshman and sophomores, like her. Jade's name was called just then and she was paired with someone name Kelsie. She seemed friendly enough and Clare introduced herself as she sat next to Jade. Suddenly, Clare heard her name.

"Clare Edwards, you will be with… Elijah Goldsworthy." Professor Melody stated. Clare raised her hand and looked around. "Actually it's Eli." The dark haired guy raised his hand, smirking, and walking over to Clare. Her mouth suddenly became dry and he sat down next to her.

"We meet again, blue eyes." He smirked, holding out his hand. She took his hand in hers, not daring herself to speak just yet. Jade leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Jackpot." Was all she said.

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	2. Chapter 1

Eli yawned as he entered his dorm. It was a long day for Eli. Between his photo class being combined with the creative writing class and his cafeteria work study shift kicking his ass, he was drained. He plopped down on to his bed, looking over at the other bed in the room. There was an issue with his former roommate assignment, the person suddenly dropping out. So his new roommate was due to arrive any second. Has he looked over at the bed, he realized stuff was already piled on top of it. Eli sat up, a confused look on his face. Suddenly, the door swung open and a box with legs came walking in. Setting the box down, the person turned to Eli and smiled.

"Hi! I'm Adam, you're new roommate." He smiled at Eli, sticking his hand out. Eli smiled back, returning the hand shake. Adam was average height, short brown hair, and wore baggy clothes. He began unrolling some posters and hanging them up. Seeing that they were posters for movies and bands he completely loved, he decided Adam was cool enough for a roommate. After some more unpacking and rearranging, both finally settled onto their beds. Eli looked at him.

"So where are you from?" he asked. Adam sat up and looked over at him. "I'm originally from Windsor, Canada. Still getting used to the states." Adam laughed. The boys got to talking about things they liked and disliked. They paused for a comfortable silence, when Adam gave him a serious look.  
"Hey. So there's something I need to tell you and I hope we can remain friends and roommates, because you're a pretty cool guy." Adam spoke. Eli sat up straighter and nodded his head. "Lay it on me." He replied. Adam took a deep breathe. "I'm transgender. Female to male transitioning. I was born in the wrong body and believe I should be a guy, physically. I'm a guy between the ears though." Adam looked up at Eli to gauge his reaction. Eli was staring at his shoes, taking in the news he just received. Honestly, Adam was a cool guy and Eli held no judgment of others. He had no problem with Adam being himself if Adam had no problem with Eli being himself.

After another moment passed, Eli looked up at Adam. "So does this mean I can't bring girls back to the room?" Eli raised an eyebrow. Adam let out a breath and laughed, shaking his head. He then smiled at him. "Only if she has a friend." They bumped fists and the mood went back to feeling light. Eli decided he should be honest with Adam as well.

"Since you were honest with me, I'll be honest with you. I was diagnosed bi-polar about 2 years ago. It was a huge mess. But I have it more under control now." Eli sighed as Adam nodded his head in understanding. "Thanks for telling me man. It's cool. You can't help it." Eli shook his head in agreement. Walking over to his bag, he pulled out his notebook and class papers. He tossed the notebook on his bed, still digging through his bag. Adam looked over at the loopy, girly handwriting written on the paper.

"Who's Clare? Your girlfriend?" Adam said in a teasing tone. Eli turned around and smirked, shaking his head. "No. She's my partner in my photo class. We needed to exchange information for projects and stuff." Eli then walked over to his bed. Adam kept looking at the name. "Is she cute?" he asked curiously. Eli laughed and yanked the notebook out of his hand. "Yes. And that's all you get to know." Adam laughed and fell back onto his bed. Eli looked down at the handwriting again, slightly smiling at the happy face next to her name.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Clare and Jade were at the campus coffee shop. Clare was staring at Eli's name written in her notebook. It was in the top right corner of her page and she hadn't realized she had doodled all around his name. Jade sat down just then, placing her coffee and laptop in front of her.

"So Eli seems cool." Jade stated. She was always hinting at Clare to talk to guys. Jade was very flirtatious and was not shy about it. Seeing how shy Clare was, she wanted to break habit. Clare rolled her eyes at her. "I suppose. We only talked for like 5 minutes." Jade looked over at her and gave her a wide smile. "And he's extremely cute. I am thoroughly jealous." Clare laughed, taking a sip of her coffee. "Is that all you look for?" Jade pretended to contemplate this for a moment, before easily answering yes.

The girls were laughing, when they heard the front door open to the coffee shop. Jade looked over and smiled even bigger. "Speak of the devil." Clare turned around and saw Eli with another guy walking in to the shop. Clare turned back to Jade, who was giving her a mischievous smile. Clare raised her eyebrow at her and Jade waved her off.

"Hey Eli! Come join us over here!" Jade waved him over. He had just finished paying for his drink when he looked over at the girls. He nudged his friend and nodded toward them. The guys walked over to the girls, taking a seat across from them. "Hello ladies." Eli said smoothly. They both smiled at him, Clare pinching Jade under the table. Eli turned toward his friend. "Jade, Clare. This is my roommate Adam." Adam smiled, shaking both of their hands. Jade smiled back warmly, placing her hands under her chin. "So what brings you guys here?"

Adam looked around the coffee shop and shrugged. "We just stopped by for some drinks before we head to the library to study. Then you lovely ladies called us over." The girls nodded, pointing to their own laptop and books. Clare looked at Eli, seeing he was looking out the window. She then noticed the mole on his neck and how messy, yet attractive his hair was. She shook her head, coming back to reality. Eli looked over at her.

"So Clare, would you want to meet up on Thursday? We can take some pictures and brainstorm a story?" All eyes turned to Clare. She began to lightly blush, looking out of the window. "Oh yeah. Sure. We can do that." She replied. He nodded his head, standing up. "Cool. I'll text you the details later." He dipped his head at Clare and then waved at Jade before turning and heading out the door. Adam waved to the girls as well, stuffing his hands in his pocket. Clare was still staring out the door when Jade jabbed her with a pen. She jumped, turning her head to glare at Jade.

"So you have a date Thursday!" Jade cheered. Clare rolled her eyes, pulling one of her books closer. "No, I don't. We're meeting up for our class assignment, remember? You have a partner too, ya know." Clare then shot her a look. Jade snorted and gave her a 'duh' look. "But my partner isn't smoking hot, now is she?" Jade finished with a smirk. Clare stuck her tongue out, focusing on to her book, while Jade put her earbud headphones in, smiling while shaking her hair.

Later on that night, Clare lay in bed reading a new book she had recently picked up. Jade was on her side, already sleeping in bed. As she turned another page, her phone buzzed for a short moment. She put her bookmark in, setting the book down. Turning the screen on, her heart skipped a beat seeing Eli's name on the screen. Clare opened the text, unaware of how eager she was to read it.

 _E: Hey! It's Eli. So would central park, by the Alice in Wonderland statue be a good place to meet?_  
 _C: There's an Alice statue? How cool. Sure!_  
 _E: You didn't know? Where R U from?_  
 _C: Toronto, Canada. Never been to NYC before I moved here._  
 _E: Wow! Then I must show you all that central park has to offer._  
 _C: Haha. Okay. Should be fun!_  
 _E: See you then blue eyes. :-)_

Clare stared at the last text, a strange feeling in her stomach. Before she realized it, her mouth twitched up into a smile. She re-read the text a few more times, before clicking her light off and going to sleep.


End file.
